


The Parliament of Arendelle

by BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/F, Give Elsa A Girlfriend, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-09-18 21:02:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9402773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder/pseuds/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder
Summary: Queen Elsa struggles with aspects of modernity, while others she rather embraces...





	1. Chapter 1

Anna and Kristoff walked up the central passage.

The upper classes were seated toward the front, Olaf, the mystic creature brought to life by the regnant queen's magic, among them.  In the back sat, among many others, a mane of red hair brought loosely to heel; she would be of great importance to the kingdom's future, but for now, only her eye-catching hair bore any import.  Before the engaged stood a doctrix of divinity, and behind her, the queen, the bride's sister, herself.  Anna and Kristoff approached the reverend.

"Do you take this man as your husband?" the reverend asked the princess.

"I do."

"And do you take this woman as your wife?" she asked.

"I do."

"In the eyes of God," she said, "I pronounce you wed.  You may kiss."

They kissed, and the doctrix left the stage.  Nevertheless, there was more to be done.  They approached the queen and took a knee before her.

"And in the eyes of the Kingdom of Arendelle, I pronounce you wed."

Anna stood; Kristoff remained on one knee.

"Moreover," the queen continued, "I hereby pronounce you Prince Kristoff, your wife's equal in the eyes of the state."  The queen took a step forward.  "I further pronounce that this shall not be taken as any abridgment of the powers or duties of the Princess Anna, who shall remain as a matter of law the senior descendant of Frederick of Hesse, after myself."

The queen then paused, meeting the eyes of a silver-haired woman out in the gallery.  "...and my own issue," said the queen.  "Nonetheless, any issue of the Prince Kristoff and the Princess Anna shall be held to be of full royal blood for purposes of inheritance and office."

The _novus homo_ Kristoff stood, and the newlywed royalty ran back down the central passage.  All eyes were on them, but the silver-haired woman whose gaze the queen had met before watched with special ire.

Soon after, a cake was cut, and brandy was poured.  The royal family, their guests, and the socialites of Arendelle were gathered around a ballroom.  A woman whispered to her husband: "be it the princess's wedding, the use of soda for cake still seems gauche."  Her husband replied: "my tongue thanks God you're not the princess."

An attendant shouted out: "all stand for Her Highness!"  All stood, many holding their brandy.  The queen entered, where she stepped, ice forming and quickly sublimating.

All were seated, except for the prince and princess, and a particular single-haired woman.  The princess pulled her prince by the hand toward the queen as the silver-haired woman, at last, sat down.  The princess embraced her sister but soon regained her poise.

"Thank you," said the princess to her sister the queen.  To this the queen simply smiled.

Soon the queen was seated, sipping her brandy, as the socialites mingled and danced, a young woman playing the violin for them.  The silver-haired woman who had met her eyes as she had given her brother-in-law his title, who had stood a second longer as all others sat, approached.  "Your Majesty," she said, "a word."

Queen Elsa took a long look into the eyes of the woman, the Lady Agata.  "Certainly, provided I first get a word."  The queen held up her glass.  "Porter!"

A porter approached.  "Yes, Your Highness?"

"Please top off my brandy."

"Of course, Your Highness."  And he did; the queen took a deep draft, then stood.  The violinist stopped, and the guests all stood still.

"Ignore me," said the queen.  "As you were."

The socialites resumed as they had been, as the violinist began to play a different, slower tune.  "Porter," said the queen again, and he filled her glass.  "Thank you."

With that, the queen and the Lady Agata left the hall.  "Your word?" asked the queen.

"Morganatic," replied Lady Agata.

"I thought I made it clear," said the queen, "that that word has no relevance whatsoever to this court."

"Indeed, Your Majesty proclaimed it to be so, and I would not dare say otherwise, only that our neighbors are not bound by your proclamation, and as such in their eyes the legitimacy of her issue will be in question far beyond any of your natural lives."

"Why should I worry what people will think beyond my natural life?"

"The same reason Your Highness's father did, and grandfather, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandfather, and myself, until less than two short years ago.  I was hardly a younger woman then than I am today; I could have come to favor Stockholm over Copenhagen, or vice versa, and left a puppet state.  And for my perseverance, a kingdom is given to a queen in no hurry to marry, ready for the crown to devolve unto the heirs of an iceman."

"Unto the heirs of my sister."

"Then it's true Your Majesty's resigned herself to eternal maidenhood?"

Elsa approached a door in the hall.  "I have resigned myself from this conversation," she said.  She opened the door, which faced the castle of ice she had erected eighteen months before.

"Your Majesty!" shouted Lady Agata as the queen crossed an ice bridge of her immediate creation to the castle she had built.  Behind her, she sensed the prince and princess approaching.

"Do not," Lady Agata said, "take my misgivings as to your marriage as aspersions on your love.  But whereas the romantic notions of this century may be appropriate for a princess, they are dangerous for a queen regnant, present or future."

The princess sighed.  "I can't agree, but I understand."

Lady Agata shook her head.  "If you truly understood, you would agree, but at least you've listened."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the 138 who read the first chapter before this was posted, please note that it's roughly tripled in length. You may want to read it again.

Wanting to distract herself from Lady Agata's interruption, Queen Elsa arranged for the guests already in her ice palace, a travelling show of some sort, to present their demonstration more immediately.  A "witch," poured into a gorgeous black dress and brimmed hat, and a "wizard," wrapped in a black robe and pointed hat, stood before the throne of the Snow Queen in her ice palace on the mountain.

"Your Majesty," said the wizard, "my sister and I stand before you to demonstrate the powers granted us by science!"

"Powers," said the witch, "that could heretofore be found only by those who would consort with de...."  Frost began to form on the queen's ice throne.  The wizard put a hand on his sister's shoulder.

"Only by a few select souls," said the wizard.

"A few poor, unfortunate souls," said the witch.

"Anyway, behold!" said the wizard, pulling back a felt tarp under which were two towers, orbs at the end of either tower, wires running from the towers to a ceramic cube.  He did... something to the cube and wires, and at once bolts of lightning began to appear between the two towers.

"The very lightning that flies through the heavens," the wizard continued, "brought forth by lead and copper from oil of vitriol!"

"And someday," said his sister, "you'll be able to tax it!"

The queen stood and approached the coil.  "Impressive," she said, "I'd heard stories of things like this, used like the smoke si..."

"Stop!" shouted the witch.  The queen stopped.  "I mean to say, Your Majesty..." the witch continued, stammering, as her brother looked on mortified, "...Your Majesty might not be safe any closer to the device than the battery."

"Battery?" asked the queen.

"Galvanic battery," said the wizard, placing his hands on the ceramic cube.  "A 'battery' of lead that as it corrodes draws the sharpness from the oil."

"Interesting," said the queen.  "So that" - she gestured to the orbs - "comes from an acidic oil?"

"Well," the wizard said, "oil is a misnomer.  It has the consistency of oil, but it mixes too readily with water to really deserve the name 'oil.'  In fact, we're finding-" at this his sister nudged him.

"I think Her Majesty might rather see the wheel," said the witch, even as the queen was staring at the wizard with rapt attention.

"Ah," said the wizard, "the wheel!  While the coil - we call it a 'coil' due to the internal workings - is indeed astounding, our true achievement is the wheel!"

"Wheel?" asked the queen.

"Consider," said the wizard, "a waterwheel with no water - consider what could be done - and behold!"

The witch pulled back another tarp, unveiling a wheel like one that might be found in a watermill, turning another like clockwork, the former linked to a glass case similar to the "battery" creating the lightning.  It turned, first slowly, then faster, and faster, and faster...

Queen Elsa was awestruck by what the siblings had presented, but their demonstration could only go on so long.  Although they were welcome to stay in the ice palace - certainly for the remainder of their scheduled stay in Arendelle, and quite likely in the future as well - their equipment had to be cleared from the main hall, and Marshmallow could help with that.

As the great snow being removed the machines from the hall, Lady Agata climbed the stairs.  She gasped for breath as she scrambled over the top few steps.  "Lady Agata," the queen exclaimed, "are you all right?"

"I'll be fine, Your Highness.  Your realm, on the other hand - I must make you understand what it is you're doing to it!"

The queen sighed, turning away from Agata.  "I understand perfectly.  You haven't shut up about it since Hans left!"

"Hans left," said Lady Agata, "interesting synecdoche for the events of that summer."

"With what you've been lecturing me on lately, it's the first aspect that came to mind."

"You clearly don't understand, then, if you see my lectures and..." Lady Agata looked around, "the more widespread unpleasantness of that summer as unrelated."

"Then enlighten me."

"Enlighten?  What 'enlightened' your home, and warmed it, the following winter?  What did you eat?  Did you give that a second thought?  Did you give a thought to those for whom it's their only thought?"

"You know I did.  You know I made sure that no one had been killed by the frost."

"Your Majesty," said Lady Agata, " _I_ made sure no one froze to death, alongside Prince Hans.  You only verified this.  And although no one froze, your people did die on those days, and after, as on every other day.  The old, the sick, newborns, who can say if they would have fared better in an ordinary summer?"

The queen turned back to Agata.  "Do you think I don't know that?  Every night I dream about the dead, but the past is in the past; all I can do is be the best ruler I can be to the ones still alive."

"And what do you expect them to eat?"

"I see," said the queen, "this is about the aid we've been receiving."

"Yes," said Lady Agata.  "Without our neighbors' aid, you would rule a graveyard."

"Their aid was not given without recompense."

"Recompense indeed," said Agata, "a queen making herself a common icewoman!"

"Weren't you just going on about everyone who died in the frost?" asked the queen.  "What about the ones who died every year in the ice harvest, whom I saved?  What about our neighbors' ice harvests?"

"By debasing yourself!" shouted Agata.  "You have to understand the importance of decorum in our situation; we enjoy only paper sovereignty, and this is already threatened by our neighbors' reluctance to sit down with..." at this she paused.

"...a witch?" the queen volunteered.

"That too," said Agata.

"Too?"

Agata seemed to choke on her words a thousand times before she spoke.  "Your Majesty, as I told your sister, the romantic notions of this century are one thing for her, but as queen, you would be well advised to take a consort."

"A consort?!" Queen Elsa snapped.

"You need not bear his issue.  If we spread the rumor your womb is as cold as your hands - it may even be true - the low birth of your heir becomes something unavoidable, far easier to forgive.  The greater propriety will lend greater perceived legitimacy, and in our tenuous neutrality, that's something more precious than gold."

Elsa looked away.  "Elizabeth is beloved by the English to this day, and she never married."

Agata again battled her own words before letting them break forth.  "Nor did Kristina," was all she let herself say.

Queen Elsa regarded Lady Agata for some time, both women making a conscious effort not to betray further thoughts.  "What are you saying?" asked the queen.

"The people whisper, Your Majesty, of a particular sin."

"Whispers are whispers."

"Our neighbors also whisper."

"What sin, then?" asked the queen.  "What sin so terrible you call it only 'a particular sin'?"  The queen took a few steps toward Agata as she asked this, and Agata stepped back in response.

"You know what sin," Agata responded.

Elsa laughed.  "Not one as minor as Kristina's?"

"Sometimes," said Agata, "the most minor sins can be the hardest to forgive, being the hardest to repay.  As I said, we enjoy only paper sovereignty, banned from arms of our own by agreements enforced by all the mages of Stockholm and Copenhagen.  If those two powers were to mutually declare our situation untenable..."

The queen formed her hands into fists, around which formed crystals of ice.  "I would bury them," she said.

"As they looked you in the eye?"

The crystals sublimated.  "As queen," Elsa said, "someday I'll have to kill."

"Indeed," said Lady Agata, "you may one day have to kill a man, an infamous man, helpless at your feet.  A thousand honorable soldiers, who will kill you for a moment's hesitation?"

"A thousand soldiers," said the queen, "ready to kill the..." - she made some crystals in the air, which quickly sublimated - "...infamous witch-queen of Arendelle, not for some great atrocity, but mere rumors of a petty vice?"

"Maybe not just soldiers," said Lady Agata, "but your own people.  Need I remind you that we live in an age in which the divine right of monarchs no longer goes unquestioned?"

Elsa crossed her arms.  "Well, then, maybe that's a question we should be letting ourselves ask."


End file.
